Boston / Monadnock September/October 2011

Happy Almost New Year! It’s been a busy few weeks. I flew to California (NY –> OAK, OAK–>BUR, BUR–>OAK, OAK–>BUR) and then headed on from there to Wisconsin, and then finally back home, two weeks after starting. It was nice to see the cat again. But I made a mild , what’s that word, resolution last year to try and post at least one blog post per month, so here we have it! It’s just about time to wish all and sundry a happy new year, but before that, I’m going to put up this post about a trip to Boston in Fall 2011 🙂

Fall in New England

Actually, not so much to say about the trip itself – it was another trip for work. I spent some time with friends. But what I did manage to do was get people to come with me on a hike to Mt. Monadnock, which was in fact my very first hike. I was curious to see how it would compare, and of course I did simply want an opportunity to get out and about a bit. So Clayton, Ternus, Katherine and I headed up to New Hampshire on what ended up being a fairly damp , but otherwise pleasant day.

Here is what I learned – the thing where I thought I became a better hiker when I moved to California may very well have been true, but the trails in New England are just rough. Monadnock isn’t really a super challenging hill, but man…switchbacks? We don’t need no stinking switchbacks. Just walk up the mountain, kid! Straight up! Boulders in the way? Well, best find a way to get over those, shouldn’t you? Yeah, that’s what we thought.

Sheesh. So! We drove up . It was drizzly. It’s New England in early fall; what do you expect? Since we are Intrepid, we set on anyway. The gate person happily took our money, but did make sure we knew at least a little of what we were doing, and we assured her we did, or were at least happy to accept the consequences of our own actions.

We parked, we headed out, on one or another of the trails – I don’t recall precisely which; I think Halfway House, White Arrow, Old Toll Road was the pick. The route up might have some days been a trail, but this day was a small stream, but we edged our way up at best as possible. Once we accustomed ourselves to just being damp, it was really rather pleasant out. We soldiered onwards, up wet boulders, through more puddles, and pursuing the general way up ( as you do. ) We got to just about treeline, and took a look at making the final push to the summit, and realized we really weren’t all that comfortable being so exposed with the weather as dicey as it was looking. We did spend a little time just before the summit hump, enjoying what little view there was, before heading back down.

And, friend, climbing back *down* slick granite boulders is in fact more challenging than going up them, to nobody’s surprise. However, we all made it down safely, and headed back to the car, glad to finally be on the much flatter , gravel old toll road…which is exactly the point, within sight of the car, where I turned my ankle and fell onto one knee.

I was mostly fine, just a sore ankle, and a skinned knee, but it turns out skinned knees bleed pretty profusely, and if it’s raining, they bleed profusely and then go all down the front of your shin, ending up looking like you’ve done something much much worse than has actually happened. Oops. Counter-recommended. “B-, would not do again.” Not much to do other than wipe it off a bit, and get into the car, and go on our merry way. (It was pretty stiff later, but I promise, it’s fine. Maybe one small scar 🙂 Yup , just checked!